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Services 


IN MEMORY OF 


Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, D.D. 


LATE PASTOR OF THE 


ARLINGTON-STREET CHURCH. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1871. 


EZRA STILES GANNETT 


Born at Cambridge, May 4, 1801 ; 

Ordained Associate Pastor of the Federal-street Church, 
Boston, June 30, 1824; 

Became sole Pastor of that Church, after the death of 
Rev. W. E. Channing, D.D., October 2, 1842; 


Died at Revere, August 26, 1871. 


5 

6-i c rs2.s 


SERVICES AT THE FUNERAL, 


August 30, 1871. 


ORDER OF SERVICES. 


Voluntary. 

Anthem. “Thy will be done.” 

Prayer. Rev. George L. Chaney. 

Reading of the Scriptures. Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D. 
Address. Rev. Rufus Ellis. 

Hymn. “ The hour of my departure.” Read by Rev. John Cordner. 
Prayer. Rev. Calvin Lincoln. 

Anthem. “ Nearer, my God, to thee.” 

Benediction. Rev. Calvin Lincoln. 


Voluntary. 


HYMNS. 


I. 

T HY will be done ! In devious way 

The hurrying stream of life may run 
Yet still our grateful hearts shall say, 

Thy will be done. 

Thy will be done ! If o’er us shine 
A gladdening and a prosperous sun, 

This prayer shall make it more divine, 

Thy will be done. 

Thy will be done ! Though shrouded o’er 
Our path with gloom, one comfort, one, 

Is ours, — to breathe, while we adore, 

Thy will be done ! 


II. 

The hour of my departure’s come ; 
I hear the voice that calls me home. 
At last, O Lord ! let trouble cease, 
And let thy servant die in peace. 

The race appointed I have run ; 

The combat’s o’er, the prize is won ; 
And now my witness is on high, 
And now my record’s in the sky. 


BURTON HIST, COLLECTION 

N DETROIT 

EXCHANGE DUPLICATE 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


I come, I come ! at thy command 
I yield my spirit to thy hand : 
Stretch forth thine everlasting arms, 
And shield me in the last alarms. 

The hour of my departure’s come ; 

I hear the voice that calls me home. 
Now, O my God ! let trouble cease ; 
Now let thy servant die in peace. 


III. 

Nearer, my God, to thee, 
Nearer to thee : 

E’en though it be a cross 
That raiseth me, 

Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee. 

There let the way appear 
Steps unto heaven ; 

All that thou sendest me 
In mercy given, 

Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee. 

Then with my waking thoughts, 
Bright with thy praise, 

Out of my stony griefs, 

Bethel I’ll raise ; 

So by my woes to be 
Nearer, my God, to thee. 

Nearer to thee. 


[REV EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D. 


7 


Or if on joyful wing, 
Cleaving the sky, 

Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 
Upward I fly, — 

Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee, 
Nearer to thee. 


READING FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 

BY REV. GEORGE E. ELLIS, D.D. 

JT is appointed unto all men once to die. 

For it is written : Thou earnest forth out of the ground, 
and unto it thou shalt return. Dust thou art, and unto 
dust thou shalt return again. 

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to 
retain the spirit : neither hath he power in the day of 
his death : and there is no discharge in that war. 

For then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, 
and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. 

When my heart is overwhelmed within me, O lead 
me to the Rock that is higher than I ! 

O Lord, in Thee have I trusted. Let me never be 
confounded ! 

And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up 
Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with 
Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry 
here, I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as 
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went 
down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that 
were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, 
Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master 
from thy head to-day ? And he said, Yea, I know it; 
hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, 
tarry here, I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to 
Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy 
soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jer- 
icho. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho 
came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that 
the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? 
And he answered, Yea, I know it ; hold ye your peace. 
And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for 
the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. 
And they two went on. And fifty men of the sons of 
the prophets went, and stood to view afar off : and they 
two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and 
wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they 
were divided hither and thither, so that they two went 
over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they 
were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what 
I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. 
And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy 
spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a 
hard thing : nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken 
from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall 
not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, 
and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, 
and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder ; and 
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 


REV. EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


9 


Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright. For 
the end of that man is peace. 

And Jesus opened his mouth and taught them, saying : 
Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall 
be comforted. Blessed are the meek : for they shall 
inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger 
and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see 

God. Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall 
be called the children of God. 

I am the Resurrection and the Life. He thatbelieveth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : and whoso 
liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die. 

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 
Ye do believe in God: believe also in me. In my 
Father’s house are many mansions : I go to prepare a 
place for you. 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : 
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 

In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good 
cheer: I have overcome the world. 

And this is the victory that overcometh the world, — 
even our faith. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even 
so also them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with 
him. 

For we know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


For whether we live, we live unto the Lord: and 
whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we 
live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. 

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and re- 
vived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. 

In all these things we are more than conquerors 
through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord. 

This man having served his generation, according to 
the will of God, fell on sleep, and is gathered to his 
fathers. 

And I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man 
could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people 
and tongues, stood before the throne and before the 
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their 
hands. And one of the elders said unto me : These 
are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of 
God, and serve him day and night in his temple : and 
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; 
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. And 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain. He that over- 
cometh shall inherit all things. 


REV. EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D. 


II 


And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me — 
Write : Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
from their labors : and their works do follow them. 


ADDRESS. 

BY REV. RUFUS ELLIS. 

L ET us not fail, dear friends, to recognize the 
wise and loving God even where the utmost 
charity may be compelled to confess the shameful 
recklessness of man. A cruel hand may bring the 
sparrow to the ground, and yet not without the 
Father does the sparrow fall. There is deep mean- 
ing, if only we have faith to discern it, in the brave 
question of the old prophet, " Shall there be evil in 
a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Not in 
the way which we should have chosen for him, — 
nay, by a way which we must try to close up for 
ever, — and yet not without that heavenly Father in 
whose providence he so heartily believed, this man 
of God has passed beyond the reach of our weak 
senses. It would be a small thing to bless a world 
in which all men are faithful. Only He with whom 
all things are possible can make the grievous short- 


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SER VICES IN MEMORY OF 


comings of his erring children accomplish a loving 
purpose. Not swift to anticipate inquiry or to lay 
the whole of this heavy burden upon this man and 
upon that, but ready rather to admit a common 
fault, we recall with horror, with the deepest sym- 
pathy, with indignation, the event which has left 
for us of earth only these remains, — and yet God 
was not far from any one of those sufferers. Of 
his faithfulness there is no end. Let man, our- 
selves included, be held to a strict account, and yet 
let us not lose the sweet and soothing refuge of a 
wise trust in Him who cannot forsake his world 
even because its offences do so abound. But 
enough of the way! What matters it, so it be 
short, when the end is to be for ever with the Lord, 
for ever in the fulness of the light and life of God. 
O my God, how beautiful are thy tabernacles, 
even though we must come to them through the 
sharpness of death! 

The days which were strength and usefulness 
have been many, the threescore and ten years 
which make up the days of the years of our pil- 
grimage. May I say that I take a kind of satisfac- 
tion in the thought that he who has been snatched 
from us, near as he is to our hearts in this hour, 
cannot stop me from telling what a sense I have 
had from my boyhood up, — from the days when I 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


13 


swelled the crowd that listened so eagerly to his 
clear expositions of Christian doctrine to the mo- 
ment when I heard of his last gospel errand, — what 
a sense I have had of the abundance of his work in 
Christ? It is pleasant in this hour to speak of it; 
but there is no need, certainly not in this city, cer- 
tainly not in this house of prayer. I said ” days 
which were strength,” and yet almost so far as my 
remembrance of him runs back, it was strength of 
the spirit rather than of the flesh; it was outward 
weakness which seemed to provoke him to labor, 
when the strong with almost one consent would 
have made excuse. Which of you has not heard 
from the silent street the fall of the two staves 
upon the sidewalk in the evening hour, signal- 
ling, against his will, the way of our dear friend 
to some one who needed sympathy and counsel? 
I think it must have rested him to work; at least I 
have tried to think so when dividing vacation-time 
with him: it was so hard to keep him away for a 
few much-needed weeks of relaxation from his 
pulpit and his people. Body, soul, and spirit, ” as 
much as in him was,” and that was not a little, he 
has done the work of an evangelist in this city for 
nearly half a century, in word and in act; and vari- 
ous as are the duties of the minister of the Gospel, 
who ever said to him, ” This ought ye to have 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


done, and not have left the other undone ” ? who 
ever said to him, "The sermon last Sunday was 
earnest and able; but during the week a bereaved 
parishioner looked for you in vain ”? who ever said, 
"We were glad to see you in our home, but we 
missed in the discourse from the pulpit what we 
gained in the parlor”? His fidelity was a proverb 
and an axiom, a first principle from which we rea- 
soned when we discussed the mission and the pros- 
pects of the preacher and the pastor in our day. 
And it was not the fidelity of an official person, but 
of the man in Christ, who is the same man in the 
pulpit, in the study, in the street, in the social gath- 
ering, in his household, speaking the truth, because 
he can no other. Sometimes he saw, or thought 
that he saw, interpretations and methods which 
would make the work of the ministry more telling. 
I wish that he could have seen them to be also 
scriptural and true; but failing that, he accepted the 
overweight and the smaller result, and hoped and 
labored for what he saw not, always intellectually 
honest, true to the reason and understanding and 
revelation by the Christ which God had given him, 
and to that abundance of the heart out of which his 
mouth spake words as fit and well ordered as they 
were burning. And this life-long work of his was 
a work of love. Conscientious service, the most 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


15 


eminent, could never have called forth such affec- 
tionate loyalty as waited upon this ministry, and 
made you willing — as myself I always was — that 
he should call you brother, because you knew that 
upon his lips it was no word of custom or of cant, 
that he loved the brotherhood, sympathized with 
the young clergyman, and was ever ready to be- 
friend the less favored. And though he laid upon 
himself burdens heavy and grievous to be borne, 
there was in his nature a great capacity for enjoy- 
ment, a keen delight in human fellowship, very 
often great joy in the common conditions and fel- 
lowships of life. And so I say they have been 
years to thank God for, as indeed all years may be, 
though not so manifestly. 

We are here because for this world they are 
ended. And I am sure that those who loved him 
best find it in their hearts even now to rejoice that 
he is at rest in the Father’s bosom. The days 
which were so likely at any moment to become 
labor and sorrow are no more. It pains our imag- 
ination, and we cannot bear to think that one whom 
we so honored and loved should have been so 
cruelly handled; but the angel of death was one of 
the swiftest, and the departure, though sudden, was 
not unprepared for, and for one who could not learn 
to be idle and be happy, the best lay on the other 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


side. How thankful we should be that after much 
weakness and suffering he had reached a season of 
recovered strength, and power to serve and so to 
enjoy ! It was good to see again the old smile, and 
to be told that the word of truth went forth as 
strongly and persuasively as ever from his lips. 
But those who should know best say that this could 
not have lasted. Presently the grasshopper would 
have become again a burden, though the desire to 
serve would not have failed, but would only have 
increased with the failing strength. He was not 
fitted to be ministered unto, though a multitude 
waited to discharge that gracious office. He never 
could learn that lesson. He loved his work so 
much that in the days of health the wages of it 
seemed to him excessive, and when his health was 
broken the very thought of compensation was in- 
tolerable. In this he was sometimes unreasonable; 
but it is an unreasonableness of which the world has 
little occasion to complain. In that last hour he 
was on his way to serve, — the burden of the Lord 
upon his heart for a waiting people. Characteris- 
tically enough he will be helpful to us, even in the 
way of his dying. One life is indeed as sacred as 
another. The humblest of earth should be the 
Commonwealth’s care as much as the highest. 
And yet it is but natural, if it is not right, that the 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


17 


violent deaths of men widely known and widely 
loved should emphasize our protests against those 
who trifle with the lives which are committed to 
their care. 

Think of him, leader, counsellor, father in the 
Israel which he loved and to which he was so 
loyal; think of him, the eloquent preacher, the de- 
voted pastor, the constant, tender friend; think of 
him, dear friends of his household, children born 
and adopted and children’s children, — think of him 
as he might have become, with that frame which 
had already won a full discharge, broken and hope- 
lessly enfeebled; and then with that eye of faith 
which he ever sought to train to a clearer vision, 
behold him, not unclothed but clothed upon, with 
the body which it pleaseth God to give, — behold 
him no longer knowing in part and prophesying in 
part, but with so much resolved for him and made 
clear to him, the light of the Lord’s countenance 
never to fade again from his face, a ministry which 
is never to end opening for him, no more fatigue, 
no more distress, the love with which God loves 
Christ in him, and Christ in him for ever, his persist- 
ent faith that the mystery of our life is altogether 
a mystery of love, fully justified, and need I say to 
you, Be comforted! 

We are on our way to an open grave. We may 


3 


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REV. EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


not linger to speak at length, and as one would, of 
this gifted and devoted minister of Christ. We 
may not attempt to gather up the lessons of his life. 
That must be reserved for other days. My privi- 
lege in this hour reaches only to these few words, 
poor indeed and inadequate, and having no merit 
save their sincerity. May they help to make us 
still before God, as one who takes us only because 
He has need of us, and pleads with us by our hu- 
man loves to embrace and hold fast the blessed 
hope of everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord, to 
whom be glory in his church for ever! Amen. 


fflje jFattfyful Servant : 

A Sermon preached in Arlington-Street Church, on 
Sunday, Sept, io, 1871, in memory of 

EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D., 


LATE PASTOR OF THAT CHURCH. 

BY 

FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, D.D. 


WITH AN ADDRESS , 

DELIVERED ON THE SAME OCCASION, 


BY REV. CALVIN LINCOLN. 



SERMON. 


“ And Ezra blessed the Lord , the great God. And all the people 
answered , Amen , Amen” — Nehemiah viii. 6. 

Friends of the Arlington-Street Church, — 


venerable and venerated man of God, your 
pastor of many years, so suddenly, and with such 
dread baptism of ruin and slaughter, translated from 
this sphere of his labors to other scenes and trusts. 

It is with great hesitation, and a painful sense of 
my unfitness for the task, that I have ventured to 
accept the part assigned to me in the ordering of 
these rites, — a part which seems rather to belong 
to some near associate of our reverend brother, than 
to one whose less intimate acquaintance saw little 
beyond his official function and public walk. I 
crave your indulgence for whatever on this account 
may prove inadequate in my representation. To 
eulogize is easy; to do justice is hard. But the 
dead are most truly honored when Justice, not 
Flattery, weaves the garlands we place on their 



commemorate in our worship to-day the 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


graves. Where the subject is really worthy, con- 
scientious characterization is the best panegyric. 
Pardon me if, seeking to avoid indiscriminate praise, 
I fail to satisfy your idea of the man. I wish to 
present my own idea of Dr. Gannett as it shaped 
itself in my reflecting when the tidings came, which 
so overwhelmed us all, of his violent death. 

Ezra Stiles Gannett, son of Caleb and Ruth Gan- 
nett, was born in Cambridge, on the 4th of May, 
1801. His father was a man of some eminence in 
his generation; a graduate of Harvard College, of 
the Class of 1763, ordained and settled as a 
preacher for a while away in Nova Scotia; then, 
returning to Cambridge, appointed to the office of 
mathematical instruction in the College; member 
at one time of its Board of Fellows; and, from 1780 
until his death in 1818, the faithful and much 
approved Steward of its funds. His scientific at- 
tainments for the time in which he lived were very 
considerable. He was one of the projectors of 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 
mother of our friend, lost to him in his fifth year, 
was a daughter of the Rev. Ezra Stiles, well known 
in his day as the able and honored President of 
Yale College. 

Young Ezra was entered a student at Harvard in 
1816, and took his Bachelor’s degree with the 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


23 


honors of the University in 1820; first in rank, or 
first but one, of a class which gave fourteen minis- 
ters to the service of the Church, among whom, 
beside our brother who is to speak to us of his 
class-mate to-day, I may name, as especially dis- 
tinguished in our communion, Dr. Furness of 
Philadelphia, the late Dr. Hall of Providence, and 
the late Dr. Young of this city. 

As a baccalaureate of promise, Mr. Gannett 
entered at once and pursued for three years the 
Divinity course of the University, whose honorary 
degree of S. T. D., I may mention here, was con- 
ferred upon him in 1843. 

On the 3oth'of June, 1824, he received his ordina- 
tion for the ministry of the gospel as colleague 
with Dr. Channing of the Federal-street Church; 
and, with brief intervals of foreign travel or bodily 
illness, continued, though latterly freed from the 
care of his parish, to labor in that calling until his 
death. 

These, and his marriage with Anna Tilden, 
daughter of Bryant P. Tilden of Boston, in 1835, 
taken from him by death on Christmas Day of 1846, 
are the principal dates of his uneventful, but how 
toilful and dutiful life. 

For nearly half a century Dr. Gannett occupied 
the post, first of associate, then of sole pastor, of the 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


Federal-street, now Arlington-street Church; win- 
ning for himself by his talents and virtues, his 
never-tiring zeal, his wide relations with the eccle- 
siastical and social interests of his time, by his long 
service in a city which has more than quadrupled 
its population since he entered on his office, a 
place than which none, I think, ever occupied a 
higher in the confidence and reverent regard of 
his fellow-citizens and of all associated with him in 
the bonds of faith. 

As a fellow-townsman by birth, my first recol- 
lection of him dates from a period anterior to his 
public career. We were pupils together for a few 
months — I just entering on my classical studies, 
he far advanced in his preparation for college — in a 
private school, taught by Dr. John G. Palfrey, former 
minister of Brattle-street Church, then a resident 
graduate and student of theology in Cambridge. I 
recall, looking up to this older school-fellow then 
with the mingled awe and admiration with which a 
boy of nine years is apt to regard a superior youth 
of fourteen, his brilliant recitations from the Latin 
text-book, his flowing speech, his maturity and 
choice of diction, the fascination of which to my 
boyish ear was such that I could not choose 
but listen in the single rude school-room where all 
the lessons were audible to all, neglecting my own 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


2 5 


tasks at the risk of the penalty which, under Dr. 
Palfrey’s wholesome rule, awaited such neglect. 
I well remember how his school-mates looked upon 
him then as quite an exceptional youth. w Stiles 
Gannett,” it was whispered among us, ” is very 
religious”; and anecdotes were current of his ex- 
ceptional piety. Boys are not usually charmed 
with that quality in a school-mate, and boyish criti- 
cism is apt to cavil at whatever seems a damper on 
boyish mirth; but no ridicule ever attached to 
young Gan nett’s serious ways. 

From the time of that brief and distant associa- 
tion — our ways diverging — I knew of him only 
by hearsay until, as a member of the same pro- 
fession, I occasionally met him in professional 
intercourse, and latterly more often in social con- 
verse. 

Of his ministry among you, of its rare fidelity, 
its incessant toils, its perfect devotion, its trials, its 
influence, its success, you know so much more than 
I could tell you, that I feel it would be an imper- 
tinence in me to do more than merely allude to 
this side of his life. A full and sufficient account 
of that ministry must come from one of his parish; 
and such a record I trust in due season will not be 
wanting. I will only say in this connection that no 
parish in this city had ever a more faithful and 


4 


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SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


devoted pastor, nor the city itself a more shining 
example of clerical worth. 

As a preacher he took high rank, though not 
among the foremost in that line, if intellectual 
pre-eminence or theological leadership or rhetorical 
splendor constitutes greatness in a preacher. As a 
pulpit orator he had not the fame or the following 
of Buckminster or Everett, or Channing or Theo- 
dore Parker. Yet when, aside from the usual 
routine of pulpit labor in his own church, he ad- 
dressed the general public on theological topics, his 
efforts were crowned with supreme success. None 
who heard them will forget those Sunday evening 
lectures on Christian doctrine, unwritten, extempo- 
raneous, but marked by all the exactness, the clear- 
ness of conception, the lucidity of statement, the 
method and the ease of a written and revised per- 
formance. Nor will they forget the crowded 
assemblies whose rapt attention reflected and 
rewarded the earnest intent of the speaker. 

An immense activity occupied his days. Here 
was a mind that knew no rest, or found it only in 
intensest action, as the earth reposes in and because 
of its swift career. His strictly official and what 
may be called obligatory labors, arduous enough 
for one man’s strength, were only a part of his 
steady employ, and were even exceeded by volun- 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D. 


2 7 


tary and self-imposed tasks. You all know, but 
the time would fail me to speak, of the many enter- 
prises, — philanthropic, reformatory, ecclesiastical, 
— affecting the welfare of city, Church, and State, to 
which he bent his resolved will, and set his inde- 
fatigable hand. Suffice it to mention, among others, 
the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, having for 
its object the systematic support of a ministry at 
large, which owes its existence mainly to him as 
chairman of a small committee appointed by a meet- 
ing which he had called in the spring of 1834, to 
organize measures w for the moral and religious 
improvement of the poor of this city.” Of this 
organization, which I venture to say has done more 
for the moral and spiritual health of the poor and 
unchurched of Boston than any other institution of 
the kind, as he was the principal author, so he has 
been for the nearly forty years of its existence the 
ever watchful guardian and the main support. 

In the prime of his manhood an attack which 
threatened to be fatal to further usefulness, if not to 
life, left him crippled, with shattered health and 
prematurely aged. The young of his acquaintance, 
accustomed to look on that bowed and maimed 
form, and that halting gait in which every step 
seemed a special effort and a new pain, can hardly 
picture to themselves, and we his coevals who have 


28 


SER VICES IN MEMORY OF 


known him of old can hardly recall, the supple, 
graceful figure and elastic movement of his earlier 
days. For thirty years we have known him as a 
cripple, and have thought perhaps that one so en- 
feebled was fully entitled to take his rest, and might 
with just propriety claim exemption from the bur- 
den of an office which his fidelity loaded with 
exceptional weight. But Dr. Gannett, viewing the 
situation, could not see it in that light. Those last 
thirty years, those maimed and crippled years of his 
life, proceeded in their courses with unslacked 
effort, and yielded each its undiminished harvest 
of good. So long as a sinew would respond to 
orders from the brain, while a nerve would obey the 
indomitable will, there could be no stopping of 
work for him. He treated his body as a hard 
master his slave, or as I have seen some impatient 
rider urge and lash his lagging, jaded, drooping 
beast. As Goethe said, when heavy-hearted and 
bowed with sorrow he girded his soul for the self- 
imposed task : “ The spirit is willing, the flesh 

mustP He needs “ must ” whom such a spirit 
drives. It was a saying of Dr. Johnson : “ I do not 
envy the clergyman’s life as an easy one, and I do 
not envy the clergyman who would make his easy.” 
It is impossible to associate the two ideas of Dr. 
Gannett and an easy life. 


REV. EZRA STILES GAJVJVETT, D.D. 


2 9 


Measured intellectually, he was not one of those 
to whom we accord the name of genius and place in 
the highest rank of minds ; and yet intellectually, 
in his own way, a man of very extraordinary ability. 
If we class the minds of intellectual men in two 
categories, the intuitive and the executive, Dr. 
Gannett would rank, I think by general consent, in 
the second class. His was not an intuitive mind, 
not the sort of mind that discovers truth, that 
receives it at first hand ; not the sort of mind 
we call original, not a leader in new paths, not an 
originator of new ideas or new methods; but rather 
one who rested in authority, who followed tradition 
without question, and leaned on the past ; intellect- 
ually conservative, cautious, although by tempera- 
ment impulsive, daring, who if his vision and 
theological convictions had pointed in that direction 
would have been among the boldest of the radicals. 
For never was man more faithful to his vision, never 
one with whom conviction and avowal, conviction 
and action, were more indissolubly joined. Not 
a man of commanding imagination or exuberant 
fancy, and without the charm and play of thought 
which those qualities engender, but one who pos- 
sessed in a supereminent degree the faculties proper 
to his class, the executive class of minds: a clear- 
ness of perception, a precision of understanding, a 


30 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


thoroughness and tenacity of mental grasp, a vigor 
and alacrity, withal, a facility of representation and 
a power of industry in which he had few superiors 
among us, and which in early youth secured for him 
the foremost place in school and college. He was 
unsurpassed by any of his fellow-laborers in the 
power of saying precisely what he meant, of set- 
ting forth in clear and cogent speech what he 
saw and thought. For thought and feeling with 
him were one : he thought through his feelings, 
and he felt with his thought. And this mutual 
interpenetration of the sentimental and intellective 
in him constituted the charm and power of his dis- 
course. Very eloquent he was, as all who heard 
him in the days of his strength will testify, when 
engaged upon a topic he had thoroughly mastered, 
or which through the interest he felt in it had mas- 
tered him. And the secret of his eloquence was 
his intensity. He surrendered his soul, his entire 
being, to the theme he handled : it bore him 

irresistibly on as a strong, swift river bears a floating 
thing on its bosom ; and it bore his hearers with 
him, if not by intellectual assent to all his positions, 
yet in uncontrollable sympathy with the torrent 
sweep of his impetuous soul. He was greatest, I 
think, in extempore speech. The exactitude of his 
perception, the perfect precision of his thought, and 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT ) D.D. 31 

the marvellous command he had of his powers, 
their prompt obedience to his will at all times, in 
all places, gave him a mastery and success in that 
kind of performance, — a combination of fluency 
and force, which I have rarely seen equalled, 
never surpassed. 

Predominant in his mental constitution was the 
logical faculty, — the faculty of consequential reason- 
ing from given premises. His premises might be 
defective or erroneous: they were not original per- 
ceptions, but derived from external authority, — he 
had, as I have said, no original sight of first truths; 
but, such as they were, his reasoning from them 
was always cogent, and if you accepted the prem- 
ises always conclusive. And this logical faculty 
and habit gave him perhaps a greater currency and 
a wider acceptance than a more original but other- 
wise less gifted mind would command. 

As a theologian he was fixed and defined by 
every demonstration we had of his faith. A 
thorough and zealous Unitarian. A Unitarian not 
by lineage or home influence or early bias, — for his 
boyish associations, I think, were very averse to that 
way, — but a Unitarian by election, by deliberate 
investigation, by independent conviction. A Uni- 
tarian of the old type, with Arian proclivities in his 
doctrine of Christ, and with Puritan leanings in 


32 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


practical religion, but on the question of Divine 
Unity, in opposition to all Trinitarian dogma, fast 
grounded, immovable ; a zealous champion of Uni- 
tarian views, and through all his professional life an 
efficient co-worker in all institutions and instrumen- 
talities aiming to establish or promote the Unitarian 
cause. Of most of these indeed — and I name here 
especially, as the oldest and most important of them 
all, the American Unitarian Association — he was 
one of the founders ; for many years a hard-working 
member of its Executive Committee, and always, 
when not its official servant, its faithful coadjutor, 
adviser, friend. Unitarian literature, and more 
especially the periodical literature of that denomi- 
nation, is largely indebted to his critical and edito- 
rial labors, as founder and conductor of some and 
diligent contributor to all of its journals. The 
Christian Register, the Christian Examiner, the 
Unitarian, the Scriptural Interpreter, the Christian 
World, the Monthly Religious Magazine, enjoyed 
in turn the efficient aid of his ever ready and care- 
ful pen. It is hoped that selections from these 
papers, as also from his printed sermons, — which 
though never collected in a volume are still extant, 
— with additions from his manuscripts, maybe given 
to the world as a witness and memorial of so fruitful 
a life. 


REV EZRA STILES GAJVJVETT, D.D. 


33 


Devoted as he was to the special and denomina- 
tional interests of the ecclesiastical body to which 
he belonged, Dr. Gannett was by no means neglect- 
ful of the wider interests of the Church universal — 
of universal Humanity. He sympathized with 
most of the social reforms of the day, and in some 
of them took an active part. Particularly dear to 
him was the cause of international peace. A friend 
and admirer of the late Noah Worcester, he fol- 
lowed the steps of that mild evangelist, uniting 
with his parishioner Mr. Blanchard, with Henry 
Ware, Jr., with Mr. Ladd of Portsmouth, and other 
worthies who conspired in this most worthy cause, 
persuaded that the gospel of Christ was charged 
with the mission of peace to the nations, and fondly 
believing, whether rightly or not, that the course of 
history must bend at last to the views and wishes 
of Christian men. 

A deeper interest, and one more urgent in its 
claims, as dealing with a nearer and more pressing 
evil, appealed to him in the cause of Temperance. 
In this so needful reform, from its first initiation 
among us, he engaged with characteristic zeal and 
untiring effort. Profoundly impressed with the 
evils attending the prevalent indulgence in intoxi- 
cating draughts, feeling in his Christ-like heart all 
the burden of the woes and crimes which flow from 


5 


34 


SER VICES IN MEMORY OF 


that fatal source, he was willing to co-operate with 
any of his fellow-citizens in any measures that 
promised suppression, or even mitigation, of this 
wide-spread, body and soul destroying vice. The 
resolutions passed at a meeting of the Temperance 
Society of this city on occasion of his death bear 
witness of the value his associates in that reform 
attached to his labors. 

It might have been expected that so true and so 
ardent a friend of humanity would have been among 
the first to enlist with heart and tongue and pen 
in the cause of slave-emancipation. Certainly it 
would not have surprised us if the grandson of 
President Stiles, who was president also of the first 
Abolition Society in New England, and an ally of 
Plopkins of Rhode Island in the anti-slavery in- 
terest, had felt an hereditary call in that direction. 

I have to record the contrary. Pie was not 
among the earlier, nor, so far as I know, among 
the later champions in that reform. Whatever he 
might feel in his heart, whatever might be his secret 
wishes for the slave, he was not an abolitionist in 
action. In the days when the topic was rifest in 
the church and most sharply debated in our Coun- 
cils; in the heat and stress of the anti-slavery con- 
flict, there were not wanting among the zealots of 
emancipation some who taxed with indifference to 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D. 


35 


human weal, with deficiency of moral sentiment or 
of moral courage, or ascribed prudential motives in 
the baser sense to such of the clergy as refused to 
join issue with them in this cause. Even so good 
a man as Mr. Samuel J. May, whom to name is to 
praise, has not scrupled in his "Recollections of the 
Anti-slavery Conflict” to say hard things of the 
Unitarian clergy in this regard, and to institute a 
pillory for those who would not and could not set 
their hands to that ploughing, where the furrow went 
so deep into the nation’s life, and " under it was 
turned up as it were fire.” So difficult is it for the 
zealous philanthropist at one and the same time "to 
do justice and love mercy.” To suppose that Dr. 
Gannett could be actuated in that or any other 
matter by any prompting of self-interest, by any 
motive of fear or favor; to doubt that Dr. Gannett, 
if born a slaveholder, would have been among the 
first to manumit his slaves and to care for them 
with a brother’s love, — is possible only to one pro- 
foundly ignorant of the nature of the man. The 
fact is, the subject for him had a legal as well as a 
philanthropic side; the legal as well as the philan- 
thropic involving a question of moral obligation. 
Like Desdemona, distracted between father and 
husband, he did "perceive here a divided duty”; 
or rather the duty for him, as one inclined by his 


SER VICES IN MEMORY OF 


36 

mental constitution to be governed by precedent 
and written authority rather than general principles 
and abstract right, — the duty for him was on the 
side of law and tradition and the ancient order. 
Theoretically, I think he erred in his decision. My 
own views of duty did not then, and do not now, 
on reflection, coincide with his. But who shall 
dare question his entire conscientiousness, his abso- 
lute integrity of soul in the views he embraced, 
and the course he adopted in conformity with 
them? Strictly considered, it might be said to be 
over-conscientiousness that dictated that course. 
Differing from him as I did in this particular, and 
sympathizing with the opposite side, I saw more to 
admire in his stern abstinence than in most of the 
demonstrations and cheap enthusiasm, the mouth- 
ing and the railing of the anti-slavery platform. 

I have spoken of our brother’s intellectual gifts, 
and I have shown just a glimpse, no more, of his 
activities. But Dr. Gannett occupies his niche in 
my memory, and I doubt not will live in yours, by 
his moral image rather than by any endowments 
or achievements I can name. A man of rare and 
shining virtues! — I shall not call his a perfect char- 
acter, for I wish, as I have said, to sketch with dis- 
criminating lines, and not to daub with exaggerated 
praise; and I picture to myself how shocked the 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 37 

good man would be by any encomiums which his 
consciousness belied. Not perfect, for I missed in 
him that serene self-possession, that patient repose 
of spirit, that " holy calm within the breast” which 
no opposition can ruffle, and no failure fret, 

“Which looks on tempests and is never shaken.” 

Not perfect, — he had his faults : who has not? — but 
yet, I repeat, a man of extraordinary virtues. Con- 
scientious devotion to duty was the ground-element 
in his character. He never spared himself where 
the faintest shadow of obligation seemed to call for 
effort or sacrifice. As associate with Dr. Chan- 
ning, the early years of his ministry were rendered 
peculiarly trying by the shadow which the great- 
ness and fame of the elder pastor cast upon the 
efforts of the inexperienced, struggling youth. He 
had the mortification of seeing often strangers, 
who thronged the vestibule of a Sunday, expecting 
to hear the renowned preacher, vanish with swift 
retreat when they learned that the colleague was 
to be the preacher for the day. His professional 
brethren noticed in him in after-life a humility, 
amounting almost to morbid self-depreciation and 
self-distrust, which might be ascribed to the lesson 
learned too well in that hard school. Certainly, 
humility was one of the distinguishing traits of the 


man. 


38 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


Another trait, equally marked, was his strong 
sense of justice combined with a generous courage 
in vindicating the rights and motives of those who 
differed from himself, and who followed a course 
which seemed to him fraught with danger to the 
Church. No minister of his communion, or any 
communion, had less theological sympathy with 
Theodore Parker, or felt himself more aggrieved 
by that stout assailer of the old traditions. But 
when in the Boston Association the question came 
up by what means to avoid the reproach of con- 
nection with one who diverged so widely from the 
trodden road, Dr. Gannett, it is said, unflinchingly 
defended the iconoclast’s rights within the terms of 
the constitution of that body, and would hear of no 
measures by which those rights could be infringed. 
Mr. Parker has often expressed to me his warm 
admiration of the talents, the oratorical ability, and 
the rare moral worth of this so widely differing 
brother. 

Of his active benevolence, his overflowing kind- 
ness of heart, his open-handed charity in the way 
of alms, his tender sympathy with all suffering, 
shown in ceaseless offices of love, I would like to 
discourse, and could give you abundant proof ; but 
my limits press, and you are waiting to hear from 
one who has a better right than I to speak of these 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


39 


things. I content myself with a single illustration. 
Travelling in Europe many years since, he chanced 
upon a fellow-countryman, unknown to him before, 
journeyed with him for one or two days, then 
parted from him in some continental town, leaving 
him not dangerously ill, but too indisposed to con- 
tinue his journey, and needing longer rest. At the 
end of the second day this traveller, from whose 
own lips I had the story, saw to his great surprise 
Mr. Gannett return, having, as he said, retraced his 
steps some hundreds of miles, irresistibly drawn by 
the thought that a stranger in a strange land might 
need a compatriot’s aid. 

To sum up all in a few words, I deem this our 
friend to have been a most faithful, earnest, loving, 
just, and brave man. His nature was precisely the 
stuff of which martyrs are made. I marked him of 
old as one who, in times of persecution, had he 
lived in the days when opinion was punishable 
with death, would have braved the fagot or the 
rack for his faith’s sake. He lived a martyr’s life; 
and may, in a certain sense, be said to have died a 
mart}^r’s death, having fallen in the way of duty, 
victim not indeed of the persecutor’s wrath, but of 
human folly and neglect. 

On the Saturday evening of the 26th of August 
last a railway train left Boston with passengers 


4 ° 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


bound for various places along the road, some 
returning to their homes after longer or shorter 
absence, some quitting them for a season, some 
bent on errands of duty, others intent on recreation 
and pleasure ; all committed to the care of the 
various officials whose business it was to speed 
them on their way, to protect their going and con- 
vey them in safety to the place of their destination; 
all relying on the knowledge, skill, and caution of 
the agents charged with this important trust. Sud- 
denly the train is overtaken on its track by a swifter 
train rushing on from behind, is overborne, its 
rear car pierced, transfixed, disembowelled by the 
rending locomotive whose engineer had attempted 
too late to arrest its headlong course. A scene of 
indescribable horror ensues. The passengers are 
crushed by the shock, or drenched and flayed by 
jets of scalding steam. Some are killed outright, 
others die of their wounds a lingering and painful 
death. On the Sunday succeeding that night of 
sorrow, the religious society to which our friend 
was to have ministered assembled at the usual 
hour in their customary place of worship; but the 
honored and always welcome preacher whose word 
they expected fails to appear. They wait : he 
comes not. They still wait : the hour expires. At 
last the thought occurs that perhaps the slaughter 


REV. EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 41 

of the previous night included the unit of that 
precious life in the sum of its woes. And so it 
proved. The earnest preacher, the indefatigable, 
had gone to join the larger congregation, in which 
it is pleasant to think of him as still a ministering 
servant. To the earthly congregation that vacant 
pulpit, that silent pulpit, had been preaching with 
an emphasis transcending speech its lesson of death, 
— the extinction, say rather the occultation, to 
human view of a star which for more than two- 
score years had shed its edifying light on the 
Church. 

But revolting as was the cause and shocking as 
was the manner of his death, I cannot regret the 
sudden decease from among us of the veteran ser- 
vant whose days had reached the limit beyond which 
it was said of old that life is w labor and sorrow.” 

Let us thank the High God that he left us, living 
not dead, — left us with unclouded intellect, his 
mind still glowing with its ancient fires. I am sure 
you must feel with me that if — 

“Alive we would have changed his lot, 

We would not change it now.” 

Friends of the Arlington-street Society, yours 
has been a privileged church • enjoying the ministra- 
tions of two men of whom, though differing with 
the widest difference, each has been a model in his 

6 


4 2 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


kind. The intellect of Channing, the heart of Gan- 
nett, have been yours. It were difficult to say from 
whose sowing has sprung and is to spring the richest 
fruit. The name of Channing has gone out through 
all the earth, and his word to the ends of the Chris- 
tian world. Translated into many languages, his 
wholesome and inspiring thoughts have been bread 
and wine to how many thousands who hunger and 
thirst for the unadulterated truths of the Spirit. 
The mission of Dr. Gannett will have, it may be, 
a narrower orbit, and shine with less conspicuous 
light ; but his work will strike as deep a root, and 
act, though unseen, with a power as great on the 
life of the world. His mission is his character as 
developed in his life: it is the influence that charac- 
ter has had and will continue to have on all who 
came within his sphere, and in and through them, 
by a law of moral solidarity, on others and count- 
less others who never saw his face and will never 
hear his name. Who can compute the radiations 
of a righteous soul, or guess how far its action may 
reach, or what latent germs of goodness in distant 
spheres it may quicken into life? The great Giver 
bestows no gift so precious as when he sends such 
a soul to dwell and work among us. Then he plants 
his own seed whose lineage never dies, but abides 
in the world, a power for ever. 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


43 


ADDRESS. 

BY REV. CALVIN LINCOLN. 

J AM very grateful to you, my friends, for allow- 
ing me to join you in the services of this occa- 
sion, — in expressions of reverence and love for 
your long-tried and ever-devoted pastor, and for 
my life-long and ever-faithful friend. When our 
hearts are full w T e find relief in giving utterance to 
the emotions and sentiments with which they are 
crowded. Still with deep solicitude and self-distrust 
I approach the service which you have requested 
me to perform; and proceed to speak of Dr. Gan- 
nett’s " character in its personal relations.” 

Of his intellectual powers, of his attainments 
as a scholar, and of his rare gifts as an extempo- 
raneous speaker, others who have listened to his 
occasional sermons and to his unwritten addresses 
are in a measure qualified to judge: they, with you, 
can appreciate the strength and culture of the mind, 
and the purity and tenderness of the heart, from 
which these productions must have proceeded. But 
you have known, as others could not have known 
so well, the wealth of his affections, the constancy 
of his love, the delicacy of his attentions, the 


44 


SER VICES IN MEMORY OF 


appropriateness of his words in your own homes, in 
all the various experiences of this ever-varying life. 
You can never forget — when the voice of gladness 
was in your dwellings, or deep-seated sorrow in 
your hearts, in your successes and in your disap- 
pointments, when rejoicing in health or prostrated 
by disease — how entirely he became one with you; 
forgetting for the time that he had any life or any 
cares of his own to engage his thoughts or to occupy 
his time. He ceased to think of himself in an ab- 
sorbing desire to minister to your present comfort, 
and to advance your highest welfare. Therefore 
it is, that any descriptive terms from another’s lips 
will seem cold and inadequate to hearts filled with 
fond memories and warm with gratitude for past 
services. 

The mental and moral characteristics which dis- 
tinguished the more public efforts of your late 
pastor were equally manifest in the discharge of 
personal obligations in more private relations. His 
apprehensions of truth and right were always marked 
by clearness and strength; while his conscientious- 
ness would suffer him to evade the performance of 
no recognized duty. To his mind there was habit- 
ually present a most exalted ideal of the sacredness 
of the pastoral office. He considered himself, in 
the full meaning of the term, the minister of his 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT, \ D.D. 


45 


people, religiously bound to perform for their benefit 
every service to which his time and strength were 
equal. In estimating the amount of labor required 
by this relation, I do not believe that his opinion 
was formed by inquiring how much might be rea- 
sonably demanded by a judicious and considerate 
people. I am very confident that he did not meas- 
ure his obligations by any conventional standard of 
pastoral fidelity. He found his law of life in his 
own affectionate heart, in his own generous and 
loving nature, purified and quickened by the Sav- 
iour’s spirit. When he accepted the office of a 
Christian pastor, he gave himself without reserva- 
tion to the service of his parishioners. In deciding 
what should be the extent of this service, he knew 
no limit inside of their wants and their wishes. In 
this department of labor I have no question that his 
ideal of duty was oftentimes more exacting than were 
the expectations or even the wishes of a thoughtful 
and affectionate people. However much you might 
value his presence and companionship at the fire- 
side, or his prayers and words of comfort in the 
chamber of sickness, you were not unfrequently 
aware of the physical exhaustion by which these 
satisfactions were purchased; and, taught by the 
great lesson of his life, would with cheerfulness have 
relinquished your own enjoyment for the sake of 


4 6 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


sparing his strength and prolonging his ministe- 
rial life. These labors, in which he so abounded, 
were not performed from a mere sense of duty, 
and in obedience to an ever-wakeful conscience. 
He loved to work in the service of others. He 
became at once the personal friend of every family 
in his society. His acute perceptions, his ever- 
flowing sympathy and the sensitiveness of his own 
nature, enabled him to understand and appreciate 
the trials, and to share in the joys and hopes of 
those to whom he ministered. Hence it was that 
there was such a peculiar delicacy and tenderness 
in his manner, such appropriateness in his thoughts 
and language and in the tones of his voice, as gave 
you the assurance of his perfect sincerity and deep 
personal interest in your welfare, — that he entered 
your homes with none of the formal utterances of 
one who believed himself authorized to instruct 
others, but that he came to you because he wished 
to encourage and to help you, by bringing before 
your minds those great truths of the gospel which 
awaken life and strength and hope in the soul of 
the believer. 

The same qualities of mind and heart which 
marked his intercourse with his parishioners, so far 
as circumstances allowed, were manifested toward 
those with whom he was associated in efforts for 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


47 


the diffusion of Christian truth, for the advance- 
ment of knowledge, and for the moral elevation of 
society. However great might be his satisfaction 
in contemplating the condition of his immediate 
charge, he could not look with unconcern on the 
ignorance and vice of the less-favored portions of 
society. He esteemed himself a debtor to every 
human being to whom he had the power of doing 
good. Hence he became an active member of 
numerous associations established in the interests 
of morality and religion. In accepting the advan- 
tages arising from united action, he never con- 
sented to surrender the right of private judgment 
or the right of obeying his own convictions of duty. 
His opinions regarding the rectitude and wisdom of 
any proposed measures were deliberately formed, 
distinctly avowed, and firmly maintained. Occa- 
sionally he encountered opposition. While true 
to himself and to the opinions which he advanced, 
he was always willing to accord their full weight 
to the arguments and conclusions of others. On 
such occasions, his uncompromising love of truth 
and justice was strikingly displayed. However 
ardently he might desire the success of any favorite 
measure, he would never allow it to be adopted 
through a wrong impression of its real character. 
His whole soul revolted from any thing like man- 


4 8 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


agement and craft. Whatever he accomplished 
must be done in the full light of day. No failure 
could disappoint him so severely as the failure to 
do ample justice to the reasoning of an opponent. 
This love of justice, this keen sense of the re- 
quirements of honorable dealing, were if possible 
more conspicuous when, in speaking or writing, 
he referred to the motives and characters of 
those maintaining views of religion which he be- 
lieved to be false, and of hurtful tendency. He 
would always state with the utmost fairness any 
doctrine the truth of which he wished to disprove; 
and, while urging all fair arguments to show its 
unsoundness, he was always careful to give full 
credit to the purposes and characters of its de- 
fenders. In this connection, I am reminded of the 
remark of one who differed very widely from Dr. 
Gannett, in his estimate of the authority of the New 
Testament. After listening to his discourse at the 
funeral of a deceased brother, Theodore Parker 
remarked, w I would as soon leave my character 
with Dr. Gannett, as with any man living.” 

But in his home, in his care for those whom God 
had committed to his immediate protection, you 
beheld the full beauty of his character. His love 
for those around him was an exhaustless fountain. 
He lived in them, and for them. He was ever 


REV. EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


49 


watchful for their virtue and their happiness. 
Faithful to his obligations as the head of a Chris- 
tian household, he was continually devising meth- 
ods to increase their comforts, — to secure for them 
some new satisfaction. He shared in all their joys 
and hopes. The advance of age had no power to 
abate the strength or the tenderness of his affec- 
tions. His heart was always young. He forgot 
himself in his efforts to make others happy. In 
their service no toils were too severe, no sacrifice 
of personal ease too great. These services of love 
were not confined within his own family circle. 
Connections and relatives, near and remote, shared 
most freely his kindest offices. All that he was 
able to do in advancing their welfare was as readily 
done as if they atone had a claim on his time and 
labors. 

He delighted in showing hospitality. He had, 
to an uncommon degree, the gift of placing his 
guests at ease ; and was never happier or more 
genial than when discharging the duties of a host 
at his own crowded table, or when his house had 
become the home of some brother who was a 
stranger in the city. 

He loved the society and he craved most eagerly 
the companionship of his brethren in the ministry. 
His manner toward them was deferential, encour- 


7 


5o 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


aging, and courteous. He was always self-distrust- 
ful, — always fearful that he should encroach on 
another’s time, or interfere with his labors, or im- 
properly obtrude himself on his confidence. This 
humble estimate of himself, increased as it was by 
a peculiar sensitiveness and an enfeebled nervous 
system, at times I know gave him the appearance 
of being distant and reserved in his intercourse 
with others. But the manner was untrue to his 
heart. I do not believe there was ever one more 
ready to trust others, if worthy to be trusted, or 
more happy in receiving their confidence and 
love. 

His generosity and ready sympathy were well 
understood by the poor and desolate. They re- 
paired to his home free from all fear of a rude 
repulse. They sought his counsel and his assist- 
ance. These he willingly bestowed. He would 
leave his study, when by so doing he must protract 
his labors beyond the midnight hour and deny him- 
self the rest demanded by his wearied frame; and 
listen attentively to a long narrative of repeated 
plans and repeated disappointments, until he be- 
came strongly interested in the condition of the 
sufferer before him. He gave advice, and encour- 
aged the hope of more substantial assistance. The 
hopes thus awakened were never disappointed. He 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT , D.D. 


51 


would spend days in endeavoring to find occupa- 
tion for the unemployed; and, when he could do 
for them nothing better, he gave of his means with 
a liberal hand. Without question, his confidence 
was sometimes abused. Still who would not rather 
enjoy the wealth of a trusting, loving heart, rich in 
that charity which hopeth all things and believeth 
all things, than that wealth which is accumulated 
by a selfish distrust, that closes the ear to the cry 
of the needy and shuts the hand against the claims 
of the distressed ? 

I have spoken, friends, not as I hoped to do, but 
as I was able, of one who was revered and loved 
by you, and had been from early life my most inti- 
mate friend. It is a great privilege to have known 
such a man, — to have had a place in his confidence 
and love. You can never forget his presence or 
his services in your homes, and in this house dedi- 
cated to Christian instruction and worship. You 
know how steadfastly he labored, how earnestly he 
prayed, for the true prosperity, for the spiritual 
life, of this society. Would you offer a worthy 
expression of gratitude for his life of devotedness 
to your service, and truly honor his memory, dedi- 
cate yourselves anew to the service of that Master 
to whose cause his life was consecrated. 



EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON, 


Preached in the Arlington-street Church, on Sunday, 
Oct. i, 1871. 


BY REV. A. P. PEABODY, D.D. 




EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON. 


“ I am the resurrection , and the life : he that helieveth in me , though he 
'were dead , yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth , and believeth in 
me, shall never die ." — John xi. 25, 26. 

INTRODUCTION. 

r J''HE Lord’s table is spread here for the first 
time, since the venerable form of him who 
was wont to break its bread and pour its cup rested 
before it on the way to the grave. On that morn- 
ing who could think of him as dead, though we saw 
the insignia of death, and heard the knell and the 
dirge? Who of us did not feel that a life like his 
could not die ? Who of us did not breathe a whole- 
hearted Amen to those divine words, ” Whosoever 
liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die”? As I 
enter this church, with vivid and thrilling memories 
of that funeral service, I seem to be coming, not 
under the shadow of death, but into the sunlight of 
the resurrection morning. 


SEX VICES IN MEMORY OF 


56 


Communion with our Saviour is our special priv- 
ilege now. With the recent translation of your 
dear pastor and my dear friend fresh in our thought, 
what can be more fitting as a special theme for our 
communion than the Saviour at Bethany? Let us, 
then, join the sisters of Lazarus, and while our 
bereaved hearts sympathize with their heavy grief, 
let us enter also into their joy too full for utterance. 

CLOSE. 

Before I close, I must crave the privilege of a few 
loving words about your pastor, though from other 
lips you have heard the story of his life and the 
fervent tribute to his memory. I have never known 
a man who seemed to me to have more of his 
Divine Master’s spirit and character. What most 
impressed me in him was, not the fervor of his 
spirit, though where have we seen a warmer glow 
of devotion? nor the versatility of his powers, 
though who has had a wider range of benefi- 
cent activity? nor his eloquent utterance, though 
from whom have we heard more kindling thoughts 
or more burning words ? but the entireness of his 
consecration to duty, Godward, manward, and most 
severely and self-denyingly selfward, — his tender, 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


57 


rigid, self-sacrificing conscientiousness, so that the 
words applied to the Saviour, w Lo, I come to do thy 
will, O God,” seem to have been the formula of his 
life; and as nearly as human infirmity will ever per- 
mit, he might, but for his lowliness of heart, have 
summed up the record of his threescore years and 
ten, w Father, I have finished the work which thou 
gavest me to do.” His conscience knew no rest, 
made no truce or compromise, admitted no excep- 
tion or excuse ; and it was to him inspiration, 
genius, power. It made him master of his own 
soul; it gave him a kingly presence among men, 
and the unction of a holy priesthood before his God. 
A thorn, sometimes, in the flesh, it was ever a spur 
to the heaven-seeking spirit. A bondage, often, 
outward, it gave him the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. 

This is the type of character in which the disciple 
draws nearest to his Lord. Other gifts and graces 
of the spirit are the blossoms: this, the matured fruit 
of Christian piety. In your pastor, both in youth 
and in age, flowers and rich, ripe fruit hung together, 
as they do on trees in the sunny South, all summer 
and all winter long. Let us thank God that such a 
soul and such a life have been ours to honor and to 
love, and are ours still and ever to hold in fond and 


8 


58 REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 

precious memory. And God grant that the event 
which has taken him from our sight may so hallow 
his example of Christian excellence for our imitation, 
that ours too may be that life of loving duty, in 
which he that liveth shall never die. 


PROCEEDINGS 

AT THE 


MEETING OF THE PROPRIETORS, 


Oct. ii, 1871. 





PROCEEDINGS. 


SPECIAL meeting of the Prudential Com- 
mittee was held on Monday, August 28th, 
immediately on hearing of the death of the Rev. 
Dr. Gannett, at which the following votes were 
unanimously adopted : — 

Voted , that this Committee have heard with profound 
grief of the sudden death of their beloved friend and 
pastor, the Rev. Dr. Gannett, after a devoted ministry 
of more than forty-seven years, and that Messrs. 
Sweetser, Hayward, and Smith, and the Chairman, Mr. 
Little, be a Committee to confer with the family of Dr. 
Gannett, and to make all necessary arrangements for 
public and appropriate funeral services in the church. 

Voted , that the same Committee make arrangements 
for a meeting of the Proprietors at an early date. 

In accordance with these votes, the funeral took 
place from the church on Wednesday, August 30th; 
and a meeting of the Proprietors was held on 
Wednesday, October nth. The Hon. Waldo 
Flint was chosen to preside at the meeting. 


62 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


Mr. Flint, on taking the chair, said, in sub- 
stance, — 


Fellow Parishioners and Friends : 

A great loss has fallen upon us, as a society 
and as individuals, since we last met in this place. 
Our beloved minister, I use the term, which, 
I am sure, he w^ould have chosen before all 
others, to designate his calling, — our dear familiar 
friend, ” with whom we took sweet counsel and 
walked to the house of God in company,” has 
been taken from us. But his death, though sudden 
and in its manner most shocking to our feelings, 
came not too soon for him; for who can doubt, 
that, at any moment, for him w to die was gain”? 
but we cannot help feeling that it was too soon for 
us. His health had so much improved under the 
influence of rest from harassing cares and toil, that 
we indulged the hope that he might again be able 
to instruct us, at least occasionally, from the desk 
which he had so long and ably occupied and 
adorned, and that he would often gladden us by 
his presence in our families. But God, in his all- 
wflse providence, ordered it otherwise; and we 
would bow in humble submission to his will. And 
now that he is gone, we cannot but recall, even 
more vividly than when he was with us, his 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT i D.D. 


^3 


constant and untiring labors for our benefit, — the 
exact learning and the persuasive eloquence and 
earnestness with which he addressed us from the 
pulpit, and the ever read}' and warm sympathy 
with which he entered into all our joys, as well as 
all our sorrows, in the more private sanctuaries of 
our homes. I was a member of this parish when 
Dr. Gannett was settled, and I have known him 
intimately for about forty years; and I can say, in 
the full assurance of its truth, that in the whole 
course of my long life, I have never known a more 
unselfish man, — indeed, it sometimes seemed to 
me that he went beyond the requirement of the 
law, and loved his neighbor better than himself, — a 
more devoted Christian minister, or a truer friend 
than he; and I call upon all who hear me, and 
especially on all who knew him as well as I did, to 
bear witness from their own personal knowledge 
that there is no exaggeration in what I have just 
said. 

We cannot fail to remember how humbly he 
thought of himself and of the work he had done 
among us; how depressed he was at times, because 
*his apparent success in his ministry had not risen 
to the height of his aspirations ; how often he 
lamented — and this was not cant: our friend was 
guiltless of hypocrisy in any of its forms — that he 


6 4 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


was doing so little for us, while we thought, all the 
time, that he was doing more than he ought, — more 
than he had strength to do, — more than we had any 
right to expect of him. The fact was, I suppose, 
that his standard of duty was higher than ours, 
— higher perhaps than any one, in the present state 
of society, could reasonably hope to maintain. 
To one of his delicate temperament there must 
have been much, in his experience, to discourage 
and depress, — all good men have felt the same; 
but, for the comfort of all such, it should be remem- 
bered, that " God himself w T orks slowly”; that it 
takes, not years, but centuries to mark any decided 
and permanent advance in morals, and that it is 
in vain, therefore, to expect that the world can be 
redeemed from sin to holiness in a single genera- 
tion. 

And so our friend worked on and ever, and 
literally wore himself out in our service, — his 
indomitable will struggling all the while with 
incurable bodily disease, and, sometimes, by its 
determined persistency, seeming almost to have 
gained the victory. 

Let us thank God, that he was spared to us‘ 
through so many years, and that he was removed, 
as we have reason to believe, without, or with only 
a momentary, consciousness of suffering, in the 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT D.D. 65 

full possession of all his rare intellectual powers, 
and after a summer, as he said himself, of great 
enjoyment. 

Your Committee request me to say, that they 
regret exceedingly that this meeting could not have 
been held at an earlier day; but they thought it 
better, on the whole, to delay calling it, until more 
of our members had returned to the city, and could 
enjoy the privilege of being present. 


The following communication from the Secretary 
of the American Unitarian Association was 
then read, and ordered to be recorded : — 

Boston, Mass., 12th September, 1871. 

To the Arlington-street Church, 

Boston. 

At the regular Monthly Meeting of the Executive 
Committee of the American Unitarian Association, held 
on Monday, nth September, 1871, the following resolu- 
tions were offered by Rev. G. L. Chaney, and were 
unanimously adopted : — 

Whereas, in the recent death of Rev. Ezra Stiles 
Gannett, not alone the private circle, but the public walk 
in this community has been bereaved ; and whereas, the 
Unitarian Church having received more than others from 
him in life, has the greater loss to bear in his death, we, 
the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian 
Association, do resolve : — 


9 


66 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


i st. That in this bereavement we put our trust in the 
providence of the Heavenly Father, under whose al- 
mighty care the accidents of this mortal life are but the 
incidents of an immortal career. 

2d. That we offer to the family and endeared friends 
of the deceased our heartfelt sympathy for their loss, 
while we would also share with them their grateful mem- 
ories of a life-work well done, their consoling faith in 
the new life already entered upon by the deathless spirit, 
and their hope of reunion where the blessing of those 
who die in the Lord is complete, — where they rest from 
their labors, and their works follow them. 

3d. That we extend to the church, "whom having 
loved he loved unto the end,” the assurance of our sense 
of their loss and our grief at its cause, and invoke for 
them the continuance of that divine favor which in the 
past has been so signally illustrated in their worship and 
ministry. 

4th. That in the death of Dr. Gannett this Association 
has lost a life-long friend and generous supporter, whose 
labors in its behalf, early begun as its first Secretary, 
have continued in other relations to the end ; equally 
true and unselfish, whether rendered in private or official 
capacity, and constant alike in times of confidence and 
times of doubt. 

5th. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
bereaved family, and church ; and that the Secretary be 
requested to confer with the family in regard to the pre- 
paration of a memoir and a collection of his sermons, to 
be issued under the auspices of the Association. 

Very respectfully, 

Rush R. Shippen, 

Secretary of the A. U- A. 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT, D.D. 


67 


Mr. Charles C. Smith spoke briefly of Dr. 
Gannett’s love of his work, and of the important 
services which he had rendered to the society, the 
community, and the denomination, and offered the 
following resolutions, which were seconded by Mr- 
John H. Rogers, with appropriate remarks, and 
unanimously adopted : - — 

Whereas it has pleased the All-wise Disposer of 
Events to remove our beloved pastor and friend, the 
Rev. Ezra Stiles Gannett, D.D., from the labors of this 
world to the rewards of the higher life, and to close by a 
sudden death the relations which he has sustained to this 
society during more than forty-seven years, — 

Resolved , That, bowing in submission to the divine 
appointment which has filled our hearts with sadness, 
and remembering with gratitude Dr. Gannett’s life-long 
devotion to the cause of Christian faith and Christian 
liberty, we desire to place on record our deep sense of 
his fidelity to the whole work of the ministry. As a 
teacher of Christian doctrine and Christian morals he was 
learned, fearless, and consistent, illustrating in his own 
life of modest self-distrust and eager self-sacrifice the 
truths which he professed. As a preacher he was ear- 
nest, eloquent, and impressive, bringing to his pulpit ser- 
vice only the mature fruits of thorough and conscientious 
study. As a pastor he was faithful to the time-honored 
traditions of New England, — the friend and counsellor 
of his people, rejoicing in all their joys, and sharing all 
their sorrows. Finding his chief duty and delight in 
laboring within his own congregation, he was yet one of 
the foremost leaders of the denomination, ready at all 
times with voice and pen to recommend and to vindicate 


68 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


the cause which he cherished with his whole heart. As 
a citizen he never overstepped the limits which he re- 
garded as circumscribing the sphere of ministerial use- 
fulness, while within those limits he took a strong and 
active interest in every thing which concerned the wel- 
fare of the community. Always taking counsel of his 
zeal, tempered only by a sound judgment and a large 
and generous charity toward all men, and finding in his 
conviction of the importance of the work to be done an 
incentive to unwearied labors, he was one of the founders 
of the American Unitarian Association, and of the Benev- 
olent Fraternity of Churches, an editor of our most influ- 
ential journals, and an honored and efficient officer of 
many of our minor societies and associations. Endowed 
with a mind singularly clear, acute, and logical, with an 
absolute fidelity to every demand of a very exacting con- 
science, and an energy which triumphed over all the 
infirmities of the flesh, he accomplished a work of unsur- 
passed extent and variety, and has left a precious mem- 
ory to this society and to the denomination whose history 
is identified with the record of his life. 

Resolved , That we sympathize deeply with the family 
of our venerated friend in their great loss, rejoicing with 
them in the recollection of what he was and what he did, 
and beseeching for them the consolations which can 
alone sustain and comfort. 

Resolved , That the Prudential Committee be requested 
to cause a suitably inscribed mural tablet to be placed in 
the church as a memorial of the affectionate regard of 
the Proprietors for our late pastor, and to take the neces- 
sary measures for securing the perpetual care of the 
burial-lot and monument belonging to the family of Dr. 
Gannett at Mount Auburn. 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT \ D.D. 


69 


Resolved , That the family of Dr. Gannett be requested 
to occupy, free of taxes, the pew heretofore known as 
the minister’s pew, so long as it may be agreeable to 
them to do so, and that the Prudential Committee be au- 
thorized to designate another pew to be used for a minis- 
ter’s pew. 

Resolved , That a copy of the foregoing resolutions, 
signed by the Chairman and Clerk, be transmitted to the 
family of our late pastor. 

Resolved , That the thanks of the Proprietors be ten- 
dered to the Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., the Rev. 
George L. Chaney, the Rev. Rufus Ellis, the Rev. Cal- 
vin Lincoln, the Rev. John Cordner, and the Rev. 
Frederic H. Hedge, D.D., for their very acceptable ser- 
vices on occasion of the funeral of Dr. Gannett, and the 
reopening of the church ; and that the Rev. Dr. Hedge, 
the Rev. Rufus Ellis, and the Rev. Calvin Lincoln be 
requested to furnish copies of the sermon and addresses 
delivered by them respectively, to be printed for the 
society. 

Mr. Smith then read the following letter from 
the children of Dr. Gannett : — 

Mr. C. C. Smith, 

Treasurer of the Arlington-street Church , 

Dear Sir, — It is with the deepest personal satisfac- 
tion that we send you the enclosed check, in accordance 
with the following clause from our father’s will : — 

" I give two thousand dollars to the Proprietors of the 
'Arlington-street Church,’ whose kindness to me has 
known no limit of generosity, and to whom I bequeath 
this money subject to their disposition, yet in the hope 
that it may be used in aid of the erection of a parsonage 


7o 


SERVICES IN MEMORY OF 


on the lot now owned by them, adjoining that on which 
the vestry stands.” 

With respect, your friends, 

Kate G. Wells. 

W. C. Gannett. 

Boston, 155 Boylston Street, 

Oct. 10, 1871. 

Whereupon, on motion of Mr. Francis Jaques, 
it was unanimously — 

Resolved , That in the testamentary provision in favor of 
this church, made by our late revered pastor, we recog- 
nize his desire to speak again — even after death — of 
his love for those for whom he had in life labored with 
such ceaseless devotion. That we earnestly appreciate 
the feelings which prompted him to make this offering, 
and we desire that the records of this church, so long as 
its history shall survive, shall testify of this token of his 
love, and of our gratitude for this last proof of tender 
affection. 

Resolved , That, while with deep emotion we take to 
ourselves, to be long remembered, this expression of his 
undying love for us, we decline to accept the legacy of 
the money therein involved, preferring that it should be 
added to the moderate store for his family, which his 
unselfish heart and hand, ever open to the needy, per- 
mitted him to accumulate for them. 

Resolved , That William C. Gannett and Samuel 
Wells, executors of the will of the late Ezra S. Gannett, 
be presented with a copy of these resolutions. 

On motion of Mr. Isaac Sweetser it was further 
unanimously voted — 


REV EZRA STILES GANNETT D.D. ' 


71 


Whereas, by a vote of the Proprietors, passed at a 
meeting held on the 24th of December, 1869, the salary 
of Dr. Gannett as senior pastor was continued at the 
rate of $3,000 per annum, which sum he declined to re- 
ceive ; and whereas it is due to his long continued and 
devoted labors in the ministry to this society that the 
wish of the Proprietors should be carried out, so far as 
may be practicable : — 

Voted , that the Treasurer be instructed to pay the sal- 
ary of our late pastor up to the 1st of October, 1871, at 
the above-mentioned rate. 

On motion of Mr. Edward Wigglesworth it 
was also unanimously — 

Voted , That the Treasurer be instructed to tender to 
the family of our late pastor, Dr. Gannett, the amount 
which has stood for several years to his credit, constitut- 
ing what is called the Gannett Fund. 

The meeting was then dissolved. 


Note. — In a letter, acknowledging the receipt of the foregoing 
votes, the children of Dr. Gannett declined to accept the several sums 
to which reference is made. 






